Obesity is an epidemic that will affect 1 in 3 Americans. It is estimated that today, $1.47 billion is spent annually on healthcare treating obesity related illnesses and conditions that result from them. Obesity does not only alter the physical appearance, but greatly compromises their overall health, and increases risk of cancer, heart diseases, liver diseases, diabetes and a plethora of other diseases. Obesity is caused by a number of factors such as lack of education, social status, lifestyle, advertisements, parenting, physical condition, medical, psychological or emotional factors, etc.
One of key factors in obesity is the large portions of food and drinks that some people consume. Frequently restaurants serve extra-large portions of foods, which are commonly two to four times bigger than the government's recommended serving sizes.
Portion control is understanding how much a serving size is and how many calories a serving contains. Portion control is important for weight management, as weight is often related to total caloric intake. Healthy eating, even according to the philosophies and theories of ancient teachers including Aristotle, is the desirable middle between the extremes of excess and deficiency, i.e., over-eating and not eating enough, respectively, or the “golden mean”. Portion control is generally characterized by or associated with eating a healthy balance of amount and types of foods. Portion sizes can be estimated by using objects as a point of reference. One way of determining portion size is to compare hand size. For example a healthy serving of protein should not be larger than a palm size piece of meat. Carbohydrate servings such as pasta can be measured by fistfuls. A healthy serving of pasta or rice should be one fistful.
The purpose of the present invention is to aim for the gradual and subtle change of eating behaviors through awareness of food intake and portion control. The goal of the present invention is to get users to eat approximately 20% less that they would otherwise have eaten or typically do eat. This concept is echoed by long living Okinawans in Japan and elsewhere who have a cultural eating philosophy or practice of “eat only until you're 80% full”.